Just to let you all know that John passed his flight 3 physical so he is cleared to commission as an officer in April (April 24 at either 11 or 1 if you want to come!)  We are very proud of him and are excited to move to cali in the spring.  Now that he has passed we should get orders in a matter of weeks!

So our Walden experiment died last week when a certain family member decided while I was on the phone with t-mobile switching our contract that he (or she) no longer wanted our contract.  Therefore we are still stuck in our cell phone contract and will not be able to go without cell phones.  That is ok because I think that the person who had our land line number before us was hated because we get a lot of prank calls.

So the other day I was talking to my students about concentration camps.  I said something about how my husband went to a concentration camp.  A student of mine got all wide-eyed and raised his hand and ask “how old is your husband Mrs. Madsen?”  I had to clarify I meant as a visitor and not that I actually married a Holocaust survivor.

Last Saturday we went with our friends up to Temple Square to look at the lights.  It was beautiful because it had just snowed and so the trees were all covered!  It was great fun.  We also had the chance to hang out with Senator Hatch (our friend’s grandpa).  He was in sweats watching BYU football, discussing the democrats appropriation and omnibus bills.   It was quite the enjoyable evening!

Our eyes were closed in a lot of pictures, but I still think they are cute!

This is all of us l-r Joh, me, Kara Morgan, Clark Morgan, Nathan Reynolds and Lisa Reynolds (the Reynolds are going to be stationed at Vandenberg with us!)

So John and I are making a big move this week, we are getting rid of our cell phones! (gasp!)  I know what you are thinking: What if your car breaks down?  What if someone needs to call you and you are not home?  Are you crazy?

As a history teacher I took sometime to research the answer to these questions, since for thousands of years people have been without cell phones.

First what if our car breaks down: in the older days three things would happen: one people would walk to a pay phone or gas station, two they would hitchhike, or three they would disappear.  I will take my chances, and make John walk!

If someone calls and we are not home, I am pretty sure they will leave a message and we will get it.  It is not like I answer my phone during school and sometimes I like the freedom that no one can get a hold of me when John and I are out on a date!  John also likes the freedom for being expected to answer and respond to all calls in a matter of minutes.

Third we are a little crazy, we are also contemplating getting rid of our t.v.!

My bro-in-law Trevor suggests that we write a book about our adventures, I decided to blog!  If it is a hit then I will look into getting it published!  I think this might be the Walden for our days!  I shall keep you updated.

So this weekend was Dining Out-which is just military term for fancy dinner with a dance afterwards.  We had a great time!  Before the actual event we went on a limo ride!  I felt so fancy.  We went up to Park City so I am pretty sure people thought it was like Lindsay Lohan in the limo. However, the ride took a little longer than we had expected so we were almost late, which is a big deal in military world (and should be in regular world also) especially since we had the wing commander in the limo with us (he is like the head cadet and sat at the front table-it would have been terrible if he was late).

Dining out was great-John didn’t get groged (which is having to drink from a toilet of gross stuff in it) so that was really nice. Sadly though John lost his button on his jacket-here is a picture of us with our friends the Morgans (she is Senator Hatch’s granddaughter) John’s hand looks funny because he is trying to cover up his missing button!

Then we had the dance afterwards.  Us and the Morgans were the first ones to start the dancing, we are real trend setters!

It was overall a great evening, only one more before we commission!

So we decided to celebrate Halloween we would go to Goblin Valley.  John has wanted to take me since April and we thought this was the perfect opportunity!  We left Wednesday afternoon and we were amazed that our little Santa Fe got 31 miles per gallon!  John was thrilled out of his mind.  We had a great campsite!  Goblin Valley would be a great place for families.  Thanks to solar energy we enjoyed flushing toilets and hot water (thanks Al Gore-I am beginning to see why he won the nobel peace prize-jk!)

Below is John right outside out tent-you just don’t get campground like this everyday!

We went and looked at Goblin Valley but it really isn’t a whole day adventure-unless you have kids this really would be the best family camping experience!  We headed over to Horseshoe canyon, which allowed us to take our Santa Fe off roading (another reason for the trip).  It was a very pretty canyon! 

The  coolest thing about Horseshoe is that it is home to the best display of Native American Art in the world!  It was awesome, the pictures don’t do it justice, you will have to trek the 6.5 miles yourself one day to see it.  John and I liked to make up stories for example the big guy in the middle in this next picture is called by archaeologists “the holy ghost” we are pretty sure that it has some sort of religious meaning.

In this next picture there is a figure playing like a trumpet, we call him Angel Moroni

Here is John next to a cool looking guy, I will allow you to make up the story

Now there was a causality on the hike.  That pretty pink shirt I am wearing in the above pictures went missing.  I have included the following picture to prove that at some point it was tied around my waist, and must have slipped off through no fault of my own.  It was a Mountain Hardwear shirt so to John that was like losing a child.  But it was on sale, and didn’t fit quite right, so I am sure my birthday or Christmas I will be getting a replacement (luckily I just got a new Mountain Hardwear coat to get me through this).

Hope you all had a safe and fun Halloween!

Also I would like to point out that I predicted on this trip that Shannon was pregnant.  John thought I was crazy, but I knew.  I mean look at the signs.  Shannon did not go on a single fun ride at Disneyland.  Do you really expect me to believe that she just didn’t feel like going on Space Mountain?  And that Matt just never volunteered to watch the girls?  Also I knew she was going to the doctor, and that Matt was probably going to go also.  I think all my mystery books are sure making me good at deductive reasoning.  We are very excited for the Aaron’s and hope that we will still be here!

John and I carved our first Jack O Lanterns last weekend at a party.  John’s was very nice, so we put that one on his brother’s grave.  Mine was a little funky, I am not so good with making mouths, so we call it the scary one! 

I am updating my photo album and thought I would post some pictures that I should have earlier.

4th of July

That is us on the stairs of the Capitol on July 4th

Fireworks on the 4th

Thomas Jefferson said that this was worth the trip from Europe just to see.  The rock is balancing the other rock (the little supporting rocks use to not be there)

John climbing the Grand Tetons

This is my niece Bellie, I just think she is really cute, her sister Adie is in the background underneath the sleeping pad.

We hiked Timp caves a couple weeks ago in the snow.

Thanks for all of you who faithfully check our blogs, sorry I forgot how to format pictures, we might be switching to another website that is easier to use!

This weekend we ventured north to visit Grandma El (John’s mom’s mom) in Missoula Montana.  We took our new Santa Fe because we heard it was going to snow (we are happy to report that we got 22 miles per gallon in that car).  We drove up on Saturday, and visited with her Saturday afternoon.  Then we went shopping, there is no sales tax in Montana so I was tempted to buy everything in the store!  Then we went to dinner at Famous Dave’s-John’s favorite.  If you have ever been there you have probably seen people eating off the lid of a garbage can, it is call the “All-American Feast” which supposedly feeds 2-3 people.  I ate one slice of meat, so John basically downed about three pounds of meat in one night (I hardly ever cook meat so John had to take advantage of it while he could).  Then we watched “Psycho” on t.v.  For being an old show that is really riska, I mean partial nudity, and blood, and just more than you would expect for a black and white movie.  Luckily thanks to a Boy Meets World episode about a crazy roommate I figured out the ending, so I stopping being really scared.

Sunday we walked around Missoula, we were able to go past the house of the author of “A River Runs Through It” one of  my favorite books.  Mostly we walked and coveted the houses and contemplated leaving the air force so that we could move there.   Then we went to his grandma’s house and looked at pictures of John’s family.

Monday we came home. It was a short trip, but it was fun.  Sadly we didn’t take any pictures, I will do my darnest to take pictures and post them!